Famosa Slough and Killdeer Land

Famosa Slough is a great place to see a variety of birds and even a few uncommon or rare birds. It's right there in the middle of Point Loma, so you don't have to drive far to see them.

First, a bunch of dowitchers flying away. There's always dowitchers flying around there. I believe these are short-billed dowitchers. However, your eBird list will be flagged if you identify them as such as they're very hard to tell apart from the long-billed dowitchers in winter.

A pair of mourning doves on a branch. The dove at the top eventually walked down and stroked the back of the other dove before pecking him to move.

Stilts, avocets, willets and yellowlegs:

One of the stilts:

Blue-winged teal:

American wigeon:

Famosa Slough is basically killdeer land in winter. There were probably a few hundred of them in there, watching me.

Curlews and other birds at Famosa Slough

The migrating shorebirds and ducks are coming in.  I saw this long-billed curlew there:

He was very itchy:

This willet was itchy, too:

Quite a few stilts, including a couple juveniles.  Perhaps the juveniles are from the nest I observed a month or so ago:

Marbled godwit:

Short-billed dowitchers, looks like two juveniles in this photo:

More dowitchers:

Least sandpipers:

Northern shovelers, blue-winged teal and stilts:

And, a whimbrel:

Famosa Slough

Not much going on at Famosa Slough, just a few stilts, Forster's terns, and ruddy ducks.

Here are some stilt pictures:

And, I think this might be a juvenile or female lesser goldfinch.  I couldn't get a good look at the front of it:

A morning at the lake

I went back to Lake Murray and snapped a few photos:

The mother duck that lost all her ducklings last year is down to three babies, but they're healthier than the babies she had last year at the same age.  It was around the age that these ducklings are that she lost all of them.  Today, though, she led them right toward the heron!  I followed them and the heron disappeared.  I didn't see him leave, but I couldn't find him anywhere.

Then, the mom was being harassed by a few drakes and her ducklings moved head of her.  But, the soon stopped and began calling for her, so she flew over.  I left a few minutes later.  Hopefully the heron was nowhere to be found so that she could deal with the drakes without risking her ducklings to the heron.

These two ducklings seemed to have become good friends.  It's the rouen and a regular mallard duckling:

All the killdeer where out calling and fighting.  I don't know which killdeer this is, but it was arguing with Junior.  I think it's George's son from last year:

Pepper still has his hurt wing, though he seems to be moving it around a little.  He hasn't changed otherwise and was even seen harassing a female duck.

I'm really surprised these guys have survived this long.  They've been at this lake almost exactly one year:

I'm also really surprised to still see ruddy ducks at this lake at this time of year.

I don't know if this female ring-necked duck is ever going to leave, either:

Yesterday, I went to Cabrillo National Monument.  It was a free week with no entry fees.  I saw some pelicans:

And, surprisingly, some California quail, too:

Later, I went to Famosa Slough and saw some stilts:

Famosa Slough and Mariner's Point

Forster's tern

Today, I did two projects with Audubon.  The first was at Famosa Slough getting ready to do nest monitoring this spring.  I took a few photos of the birds that were there.

Least Sandpiper

Dowitchers

Willet

Blue winged teal

Forster's tern

Then, I went over to Mariner's Point in Mission Bay to help remove some invasive weeds before the least terns come to nest.  The killdeer were already there with their nests.  Here is one of the mothers:

Here is another female on her nest.  I was working about 10-15 feet from her and she stayed on her nest pretty much the whole time.

Here she is with her eggs in the background.

This is her with her mate.  When he visited, they mated, so I definitely know that the one sitting on the nest is the mom.

Here is my view of the work area with all the primrose.

This is North America's smallest butterfly, the pygmy butterfly:

This spot had a good sight of the bay.  Here are two California brown pelicans (and a Forster's tern) flying around the point: